No push notifications when connected to wifi

[GnortsMrAlien]

Hi ,

I have a ZTE MC801A router which i recieved from three when i signed up to the 5g hub internet when i moved into my new house. Since then i have not recieved push notifications through to my phone, neither has my girlfriend. When we disconnect from the wifi and to 4G roaming we recieve all the notifications we should have at once. This also means our Google Hello doorbell does not work - it does not send notifications through on home when we are connected to wifi and also means we do not hear the doorbell as it wont send a chime through to the Google Mini speaker. Ive tried port fowarding Port 5228, reset to factory settings, enabled UPNP and reset the Google Home devices with no luck.... Any idea? 

[JonathanB]

Hi @GnortsMrAlien,

We've not seen an issue like this before, but we'll do our best to help. 🙂

Here's a few ideas to narrow down and test the issue:

• Are both phones also on Three?
• What make and models are the phones?
• Does this definitely only affect push notifications, have you tested texting and calling whilst connected to the router?
• Does it make a difference whether WiFi calling is enabled or disabled on the phones?

Thanks,
JonathanB

[crypt0ninja]

Hey @GnortsMrAlien to add to the good points @JonathanB has mentioned above, can you also confirm which APN your MC801A is using?

Is it using the 'three.co.uk' APN or '3Internet' APN?

You want to be using the 3Internet APN for any Port Forwarding/uPnP etc. to work as the three.co.uk APN uses CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT, it puts many users behind 1 IPv4 WAN IP address rather than allocating each users their own IPv4 WAN IP and can cause such issues as you describe).

[maxf]

Came here to say I have the exact same issue with the same router I got 3 days ago. So that's at least 2 of us with this problem. It's annoying to have to disconnect your phone from the wifi to get your notifications on time.

[GnortsMrAlien]

Hi, many thanks for the reponses @JonathanB 

• Are both phones also on Three? - no both phones are on 02, but i would presume that this shouldnt affect push notificaitons on wifi?
• What make and models are the phones? ONEPLUS 8 and PIXEL 3a XL
• Does this definitely only affect push notifications, have you tested texting and calling whilst connected to the router? Calling and texting are fine, its just push notifications 
• Does it make a difference whether WiFi calling is enabled or disabled on the phones? i have tried both wifi calling on and off, no effect still no push notifications. 

@crypt0ninja  thanks for your suggestion,i have logged into the router and can see the default APN is 3internet so i have left it set to that. 

[JonathanB]

Hi @GnortsMrAlien,

On the first point yeah 100%, we've got no reason to believe that being on Wi-Fi should prevent push notifications. This is really odd behaviour from your router/phones.

Whilst looking into this, I did find some info about iPhones historically having issues with receiving push notifications when on both WiFi and mobile data. This may not be relevant, but it is a strikingly similar issue. Out of curiosity, can you try connecting to Wi-Fi with mobile data turned off in the settings?

I've reached out to a tech specialist and they just wanted to clarify a couple of the points, sorry if this feels like repeating anything but we just want to make sure of the following:

• All push notifications are stopped, so email and other apps etc, not just the doorbell/smart home devices?
• Every other element of Internet connectivity is fine, you can browse, and apps that should send push notifications otherwise function normally?
• Other than uPNP and opening port 5228, which were both done after the issue started, all router settings are default?
• When you mentioned 4G roaming, you're referring to normal mobile/cellular data on o2 UK, you definitely didn't mean roaming on a foreign network?

Let me know on the above, and I'll also continue to look for leads in the meantime.

Thanks,
JonathanB

[GnortsMrAlien]

Hi Jonathan, unfortunatley no luck with the wifi and data setting. 

• All push notifications are stopped, so email and other apps etc, not just the doorbell/smart home devices? yes all notificaitons are stopped. It just seems so strange. Other wifi networks are fine when i have connected to wifi at work / my parents house, so the issue must be something to do with the router. 
• Every other element of Internet connectivity is fine, you can browse, and apps that should send push notifications otherwise function normally? Yeah other than the notification issue, the broad band works perfectly fine as intended. 
• Other than uPNP and opening port 5228, which were both done after the issue started, all router settings are default? Yes all settings are deafult, we have factory reset the router now so uPNP and port 5228 are at the default option now (off/closed)
• When you mentioned 4G roaming, you're referring to normal mobile/cellular data on o2 UK, you definitely didn't mean roaming on a foreign network? yes apologies i mean cellular. 

Its got to the point where we are considering leaving Three because of this, i appreciate not having push notifications is not the end of the world it is quite an inconvinience. 

[Jr4014]

I am having the same problem. No push notifications when connected to the 3 5g Wi-Fi.  My ring doorbell does not come through until you turn Wi-Fi off and then it comes through straight away.  We have a ZTE 5g router too.

I have a Nothing phone, my partner has something else which is also on Virgin but the same issue!?

[maxf]

Definitely something with connections from Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging being blocked. Whatsapp notifications work, but only because it uses a fallback for when FCM is unavailable. Perhaps something to do with the Firewall and NAT/SPI timeout advice mentioned at https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/concept-options#messaging-ports-and-your-firewall ? Worth checking with your tech specialist @JonathanB 

[maxf]

Some more investigation: I unplugged the router and put the SIM in a 5G phone with hotspotting on. (although the data indicator showed as 4G). Notifications were still not arriving to the tethered device until wifi turned off. So apparently the problem isn't with the router.